World Bank: Climate change will hit poorest hardest

All nations will suffer the effects of a warmer world, but the world's poorest countries will suffer most from food shortages, rising sea levels, cyclones and drought, the World Bank’s new report on climate change says.

Under new World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, a former scientist, the global development lender has launched a more aggressive stance to integrate climate change into development.

"We will never end poverty if we don't tackle climate change. It is one of the single biggest challenges to social justice today," Kim told reporters on Friday [16 November].

The report, ‘Turn Down the Heat,’ says that 4 degrees of global warming by 2100 is likely under current policies, and would have devastating impacts.

Climate change is already having an effect. Arctic sea ice reached a record minimum in September, and extreme heat waves and droughts have hit the US and Russia more often in the last decade than would be expected from historical records, the report says.

Such extreme weather is likely to become ‘the new normal’ if temperatures rise by 4 degrees, unless countries comply with pledges made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But even doing so would not stop warming of over 3 degrees Celsius.

In this hotter climate, sea levels would rise by up to 1 metre, flooding cities in places like Vietnam and Bangladesh. Water scarcity and falling crop yields would exacerbate hunger and poverty.

Extreme heat waves would devastate broad swaths of the earth's land, from the Middle East to the US, the report says. The warmest July in the Mediterranean could be 9 degrees hotter than today – similar to temperatures in the Libyan Desert.

Unpredictable effects

Cumulatively, such climatic changes could carry unpredictable effects that people may not be able to adapt to, said John Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, which authored the report, along with Climate Analytics.

"If you look at all these things together, like organs cooperating in a human body, you can think about acceleration of this dilemma," said Schellnhuber. "This is not where we want the world to go."

Scientists are convinced that global warming is caused by increasing concentrations of man-made greenhouse gases produced by the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.

Kim said the World Bank plans to further meld climate change with development in its programmes. Last year, the Bank doubled its funding for 48 countries seeking to adapt to climate change, to $7.2 billion.

"There really is no alternative to urgent action given the devastating consequences of climate change," global development group Oxfam said in a statement. "Now the question for the World Bank is how it will ensure that all of its investments respond to the imperatives of the report."

In 2010, the World Bank approved a $3.75 billion loan to develop a coal-fired power plant in South Africa despite international opposition.

Kim said the World Bank tries to avoid coal investments unless there were no other options. "But at the same time, we are the group of last resort in finding needed energy in countries that are desperately in search of it," he said.

The World Bank study comes as almost 200 nations prepare to meet in Doha, Qatar, from November 26 to December 7 to try to extend the Kyoto Protocol, the existing plan for curbing greenhouse gas emissions by developed nations that ends this year.

Background

Extreme weather events are rare, which means that statistics are not always available to analyse them. But the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s extreme weather report found it probable that the incidence of heat waves and floods had increased in recent years, although there are strong regional variations.

A rise in extreme coastal high water related to increases in mean sea level was also rated at between 66%-90% probability.

IPCC scientists also expressed confidence that droughts were becoming more intense and longer, particularly in southern Europe and West Africa, but in central North America and northwestern Australia the reverse seemed to be happening.

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0 responses to “World Bank: Climate change will hit poorest hardest”

The talk up for the Doha umbrella drinks lamenting of hot climate has begun.
Where is the link to the actual report?
This article and the report flaunts grave errors.There has been no recorded change in global temperature over the last sixteen years. So what global climatic change or warming are we talking about?
Actic ice is melting from a record high level, while the Antarctic ice is expanding to record levels. When did you last hear of that? This is something like a natural ice cap pendulum swinging back and forth.
A higher mean global temperature will not induce more storms. Experts agree that storms will lessen in numbers and severity with a declined temperature gradient. This is also one the few climate forecasts that is supported by both theory and statistics.
There is no alarming rise in sea levels. But land is sinking on the east coast och North America and some Asian coasts. These are well known and studied phenomenas. Part of the reasons for this sinking is local pumping of fresh water out of the ground to sustain households, farming and industry. That part is a man made problem, but it’s not climate change.

All I’m hearing from the Worldbank is the big scare. They saw business in the climate scare, but the climate isn’t out of whack. So they have to make noise to keep the scare up. If not, they lose money and look stupid. That’s their true scare.

The best solution is to lower 300yrs of CO2e build-up and urgently restart the carbon cycle by sequestering into that 2-6% of vegetation that converts CO2 into C soil carbon. Much of this vegetation meets UNFCCC 100yr
Rule. Trees rice cotton most grains and vegetables are
C3 photosythesis pathway taking carbon from soil hence deserts. Well planned we can grow food fodder and in time forestry in deserts replicating Nature as we do in PRC. Coal energy is defacto volcanoes emission to become essential nitrates sulfates for living matter to breathe or sequester. There is no immediate non polluting energy on the horizon. Yes we need to stop chemical emission at source but, the dedication to address reduction at source is at present finite. By lowering CO2e into C4 vegetation into impoverished nations we will see fodder food within 1-3 years trade the CO2 sinks via UNFCCC eliminate the dependance on Aid hence relief on Financially strapped nations. This approach returns dignity to impacted nations reduces war. Feed a man today you feed him tomorrow show him how we grow soil food fodder forestry and he feed the world. The world is running out of soil potable water Mass migration into the same environs is happening creating greater issues. Growing food fodder in desert region is replicating Nature it extends all the solution the Bank and Nations seek. Carbon trading will self fund programme with funds to research non polluting energy.since COP3 no action in real terms we need this complete proven alternate Robert Vincin

That World Bank report is absurd and should raise questions about the competence of the entire organization . There is no evidence that the rate of warming is precipitously doubling or quadrupling despite our continuing to restore more of the building block of the biosphere to our atmosphere . In fact we seem to be on a plateau at the top of a periodic cycle .

What without question will hit the poorest hardest is the intentional reduction of affordable energy both directly to the poorest , and generally by the lowered standards of living thru the expropriation of cash flows from all energy production to the State political , bureaucratic and policing sectors .